Chapter 383 - 345
Chapter 383: Chapter 345
After speaking with Gu Ning, Menela gave her a few more words of advice, telling her to rest well before hurriedly leaving the hospital room.
Alex and Lanuo, who was making his routine rounds, stood outside the door.
Menela stopped when she saw the two of them. She sized Alex up for a moment, then turned and left without a word.
Once she was out of sight, Lanuo pushed up his glasses and turned to Alex. "It seems Ningning’s Beast Mother is quite satisfied with you."
Alex shot him a glance. "You figured that out, did you?"
"Have you forgotten?" Lanuo said. "She gave me a dressing-down last night. If she weren’t satisfied with you, she would’ve just chewed you out. It seems I need to go back and work hard for a promotion myself."
Alex placed his hand on the doorknob and said, "She scolded you, but it wasn’t because of Ningning. Don’t get the wrong idea."
*
「On the rooftop.」
"CHIRP!" ("Little Mei, are you leaving already? Can’t you stay a little longer?")
"I can’t." Menela took the gloves a subordinate handed her and put them on. "I received an urgent message from the Sea Area. I have to go take care of it."
She had only managed to squeeze in this trip amidst her packed schedule. The Sea Area bordered the ocean, its countless small islands scattered across the vast expanse. Unlike the No Man’s Land, which had a fixed, guarded border, it was easy for outside beasts to slip through the gaps. With spring just around the corner, many from places like Sky Watch Point would be looking for females, trying every trick in the book to enter the Beast Alliance’s territory. She had to go and personally oversee the Sea Area’s defensive line.
Windsor stepped forward and said, "There’s been a lot of unusual activity in the Sea Area recently. You should take more people with you."
"The Fifth Military District and the Tenth Military Region are already stationed in the Sea Area." Menela vaulted onto the large bird her subordinate had transformed into. "I’m leaving this squad with you. They can withdraw once you’ve safely entered Zone 5."
"CHIRP!" Ah Mo said. "Don’t worry, Little Mei. We absolutely will not use your soldiers to get involved in clan disputes."
Still not entirely at ease, Menela instructed, "Help me look after Ah Ning. I’ll be back after spring begins."
.
After lunch, Lanuo watched Gu Ning take her medicine and didn’t leave until he saw her lie down for an afternoon nap.
Seeing her settle down, Alex went to rest on the sofa as well.
Gu Ning couldn’t fall asleep. She turned onto her side, glanced at Alex, who appeared to be asleep, and opened her terminal.
For the past several days, she had been either busy traveling, fleeing for her life, or sick. Now, she finally had the time—and an internet connection—to take care of things on her terminal.
First, she checked her unread messages.
Most were from her two superiors, along with some earlier messages from Barto and the others.
To avoid revealing her identity, very few beastmen had her terminal code.
Among the unread messages, Andrew and Cyril had both asked about her journey and her safety, but the messages were from three or four days ago. They had probably been too busy since then to send any more.
She replied to both, letting them know she was safe, and also inquired about her work.
She had been promoted from a freelance correspondent to an official reporter for the Military Department, so her duties, salary, and benefits should be different now.
Captain Meira had only told her about becoming an official employee, without going into detail. And since she had left in such a hurry that morning for work, Gu Ning didn’t feel right delaying her with more questions.
The last few unread messages were from her collaborator, Idelos:
[Are you free? Wanted to discuss the new video.]
[Have you been busy?]
[I went ahead and did some promotion to maintain traffic. Let’s discuss work when you’re back online.]
After reading the messages, Gu Ning quickly logged into Anzhao.
The signal was great here, and she was logged into the site just a few seconds after entering her account details.
The moment she logged in, she was blinded by a dazzling array of pop-up ads.
Having not logged into Anzhao for a long time, the website seemed much busier.
She swiped away the ads and scanned the Anzhao homepage.
The main screen of the homepage had some unfamiliar video thumbnails, and the leaderboards were no longer filled with the ones she knew. However, her own videos were still on the view count leaderboard and had even moved up a few spots.
’That’s odd. I haven’t posted a new video in so many days, yet I’m still on the leaderboard. By all rights, my ranking should have dropped at least a little. For professional video bloggers and production companies, their fan base and quality are directly proportional. Even if I managed to cater to beastman tastes by pretending to be a Beast Female, I should have dropped off the charts by now after not updating for so long.’
Just as Gu Ning was pondering this, she saw a familiar frame scroll past in the recommended section at the top of the homepage.
In the picture, a girl stood in a snow-white wasteland, her wind-tousled hair brushing across the side of her face. It was as beautiful as a still from an arthouse film.
Gu Ning clicked the recommendation, opening a video titled "The Long Winter."
After watching for a few seconds, she paused the video and looked at the uploader’s name in the top-right corner—
Idelos.
The video had been posted a week ago. Gu Ning did a quick mental calculation. He must have edited and posted this video to Anzhao not long after she sent him the raw footage.
Idelos had also pinned a comment in the comment section, tagging her account: This winter belongs to you
The comment had a thread tens of thousands of replies long, most of which either tagged her or simply copied what Idelos had written.
Gu Ning casually scrolled through the top-rated comments. The vast majority were complimentary; she saw very few cursing her or Idelos. This was completely different from the chorus of insults that had erupted when their collaboration was first revealed.
The few comments that did curse them were no longer as harsh as those under her other videos.
Filled with curiosity, Gu Ning resumed playing the video.
The video was only half a minute long, and most of the scenes were taken from the raw footage she had sent to Idelos. But she could see that every frame had been meticulously edited. The shot transitions and post-production techniques were extremely professional, with a distinct aesthetic of their own. It was similar to her own style, but not quite the same.
’How to describe it... Her previous videos were made for a short-video format. The picture was vivid when it needed to be, dark when it should be, with the camera focused on her as much as possible without revealing any imperfections. Just doing the post-production for those made her want to pull her hair out.’
This video, however, felt like a movie trailer. Paired with lyrical music, it had a much stronger sense of story, prompting viewers to imagine a plot and anticipate what would happen to the protagonist on screen.
The video even included a few lines of text, which enhanced the sense of mystery and story.
Gu Ning watched it twice more and couldn’t help but marvel. ’It really pays to leave professional work to the professionals.’ Idelos was a popular star, so he definitely had a professional team backing him. Working with him was certainly much less stressful.
’In the future, I can just hand my videos over to him for editing and not worry about a thing.’
Gu Ning propped her chin on her hand, scrubbing back and forth through the video. Her mind returned to what Captain Meira had told her, and she considered how to proceed with her work for both Anzhao and the Military Department.
Gu Ning took out the special permit Meira had given her and looked at it.
If nothing unexpected happened, once she recovered, the next train would take her directly to Zone 5.